In my kitchen recently

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For my kitchen tip this week I thought I would share what has been going on in my kitchen recently.

1. As everyone knows the use of a crockpot can made meal preparation much easier, but I haven't been able to utilize mine as much as I'd like to because I'm away from home from 7:30 A.M. until 5:30 P.M. each work day and that's simply too long for anything to cook without it being cooked to death!

The job my hubby has now is near our home so he goes home to eat lunch most days. I have found that if I put the recipe together in the lift out portion of the crockpot and leave it in the refrigerator, when he comes home at lunch he can take it out, put it in the crock pot and turn it on. The food is perfect when we get home at the end of the day.

The easiest thing ever is BBQ chicken in the crock pot. Before I left for work this morning, I simply put the chicken in the pot, very lightly salted and peppered it, covered it with bottled BBQ sauce and added a little water in the bottom. When I get home the chicken will be tender and easy to pull off the bone. I have in the refrigerator a medium size bowl of left over rice. I'll remove the chicken from the bones and serve it over the warmed up rice.

Saturday I purchased a package containing 3 large split chicken breasts (about 3 lbs) at my local Food Lion Store for 88 cents a pound. This is a very inexpensive meal to feed 4 hungry people. I also intend to served baked beans with this meal and there is salad available if anyone wants that too.

2. I often get in a rut with my menu ideas and we seem to eat the same thing over and over. Last week I made three different meals that we've never had at my house before. They were chicken fajitas, hot Buffalo wings and dilled salmon pasta salad. All three were good and will be repeats at my house.

Here is the dilled salmon pasta salad recipe

Dilled Salmon Pasta Salad

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Ingredients
1.5 cup tricolored spiral pasta
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
1/4 cup chopped sweet red pepper
2 Tablespoons chopped onion
2 Tablespoons minced fresh dill or 2 teaspoons dill weed
7.1 oz. Chicken of the Sea® Premium Skinless & Boneless Pink Salmon Pouch
Mixed salad greens


Directions
Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, combine the sour cream, mayonnaise, green peppers, red peppers, onions and fresh dill in a bowl. Drain and rinse pasta in cold water; add to sour cream mixture. Stir in salmon. Cover and refrigerate. Serve over salad greens.

Preparation Time: 10

1.5 cups of the pasta didn't seem like enough to me so I used 2 and it was perfect. I think even 2.5 would work. Also, I didn't have fresh dill, so I used the bottled dill weed, which I already had on hand. We are still getting some green pepper from our plants, so I used all green pepper. I also used light sour cream. You could also use light mayo, but we use regular old fashioned "Dukes" Mayo.

This dish was even better left over the next day and very good for you.

3. We are having just a taste of fall in our area and early Saturday morning it was cooler outside than it was inside with the AC running. It was so nice to open the window over the kitchen sink and let the fresh air and sounds from outside come inside. I even lit a fall candle that burned all day Saturday.

4. Sunday we had a delicious and easy cake. I just used a store bought carrot cake mix and store bought cream cheese icing. I threw it together after church and it was cool, frosted and ready to eat by 1:00.

Our Sunday Dinner menu was: Crock pot roast, Rice with gravy, potato salad, green beans, biscuits and carrot cake.

The potato salad was made from the last of the garden potatos from my Mama's garden. Some of them were really tiny and should have been boiled and eaten when first dug. I didn't let any of them go to waste however. I peeled even the bite size ones and ended up with just enough potatoe salad to feed our crowd!

5. Now that the change of seasons is taking place I plan to make more soups, stews and chillis. This weekend I hope to make a nice big pot of my homemade chilli! Can't wait!

Have a great Tuesday and don't forget to check out the other tips at Tammy's Recipes!